While the animal activists won't admit it, the live cattle trade suits the comparative advantage of both Northern producers and Indonesia. Northern Australia has vast swathes of poor quality land with highly variable and seasonal rainfall, that can breed cattle very cheaply but has limited capacity to supply fattened cattle year round. Indonesia on the other hand can feedlot and slaughter cattle cheaply. In respect of animal welfare, road transport from the North to domestic abattoirs can exceed 24 hours by road train, and with cattle more readily fed and watered on board ship, sea transportation to Indonesia can be less stressful.
The crisis in the live trade was precipitated by the ABC Four Corners documentary (aired on 30 May 2011) on cruelty to Australian sourced cattle in Indonesian abattoirs. Independent parliamentarians, Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon, demanded an immediate ban on such exports. Following support from Agriculture Minister Ludwig, an immediate ban on the abattoirs in question resulted. This was followed by a six-month ban (suspended on 6 July 2011) on the entire live trade to Indonesia. A condition on the resumption of the trade allowed the export of live cattle only where animals are managed through supply chains that meet international standards.
Fresh calls to ban live exports arose on 7 May this year when "new" footage showing Australian cattle being inhumanely slaughtered in Egypt was shown on the ABC's 7.30 Report.
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Australians have been lead to believe that the TV footage showing cruelty that shocked the public was typical of what occurs inside Egypt and Indonesia. The impression was also given that it was Animals Australia who had infiltrated Indonesian abattoirs. It now transpires that the TV footage was supplied by Tracks Investigations - The Eco Spooks, a UKbased commercial film production service to animal protection groups.
Tracks Investigations has been doing work for Animals Australia (including in Egypt, the Middle East and Indonesia) for the past eight years. It also seems that the latest footage showing cruelty at Egyptian abattoirs (if the Egyptian authorities are to be believed) may have been filmed as far back as 2009 and subsequently "saved up" for recent release to maximise media impact. This all suggests that the Government and the public have been reacting emotionally to footage that is purpose made to shock rather than convey a balanced image of the industry.
Most cattle industry players in Australia, as well as officials in Indonesia, would have accepted a suspension of supply to any abattoir guilty of undue cruelty, and this would not have been unduly disruptive. The sudden ban on all cattle exports (with accompanying vilification of Indonesia by our media and politicians) instead seriously damaged the cattle industry, and caused shock and anger in Indonesia.
In Asian culture the concept of "saving face" (a combination of reputation, social status, dignity, and honour) is a central principle of etiquette. Causing Asian people to "lose face" (which was done recklessly and in full publicity through front page media on this occasion) is a grievous offence not readily forgiven. Such gross transgression by Australia was worsened by undertones of racism, religious intolerance, and moral superiority that still haunt our historic relationship with Asia. Unsurprisingly and in retaliation, Australia's live export quota ended up being slashed by about a third and export specifications were tightened, using the pretext of Indonesia moving towards becoming self-sufficient in beef production.
The shutdown of live cattle exports to Indonesia in 2011 and the way it was done caused havoc because cattle which would have ordinarily been exported to Indonesia remained in the Australian market (with nowhere to go in many cases). It also led to financial losses all along the supply chain from producers to the Indonesian consumer, who suffered skyrocketing meat prices.
A very wet monsoon season in 2010-11 and to a lesser extent again in 2011-12 helped to delay some of the impact on Northern graziers because excess stock could be temporarily carried over. A poor wet season in 2012-13 (except for some unseasonal late rain in the Northwest) has now led to a flood of Northern cattle onto the domestic market (especially in Queensland). This contributed to falls in both live export prices and domestic saleyard prices (which were already under pressure from a poor season in the south). Hundreds of thousands of cattle are now likely to suffer from shortages of feed and thousands of unmarketable cattle may need to be shot in what will almost certainly be a bigger animal welfare crisis than that initially complained about.
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About 30 per cent of Northern cattle producers are now believed to be under serious financial stress and Northern cattle properties are said to have fallen in value by between 25 and 40 per cent. AACO, the largest producer, now estimates its total losses as a result of the live trade suspension (mainly write-downs to property values and lost profits) to be over $50 million.
Despite much of the damage to the industry being the result of disastrous Government decisions, the only assistance offered by the Gillard Government has been the Live Exports Assistance Package worth a paltry $30 million in total. This compares very unfavourably to the billions thrown at the car industry, despite the cattle industry being viable without government interference, and the car industry destined to disappear irrespective. (Could the fact that the car industry is heavily unionised explain the double standard?)
There have been recent signs Indonesia is reassessing its beef import quotas but it may take years for the live trade to fully recover. While there is a growing short term need for the Government to address the looming animal welfare crisis hitting Northern Australia, nobody really expects this to be a priority for the Gillard administration (while it lasts). As far as Animals Australia is concerned, it most likely will continue to ignore the domestic disaster it lobbied so hard to create.
Disclosure of Interest: The author runs beef cattle and merino sheep on properties in the Southern Tablelands district of NSW.
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